Josh Gad

In Pixels (2015), Josh Gad's Ludlow seems pleased to be involved, which is more than can be said for Adam Sandler's reluctant hero. Gad supplies excitement where the leading performance offers mostly weariness, and Peter Dinklage brings some welcome comic energy alongside him. We were irritated by Pixels, because their effort made the lack of it at the centre harder to overlook. Chris Columbus's comedy still has a slack, unfunny script, and there is only so much a willing supporting actor can do.

His stage breakthrough was Elder Cunningham in The Book of Mormon (2011); voicing Olaf in Frozen (2013) then steered his screen work towards animation and family films. The singing and musical-theatre energy suit animation, but the warmth matters just as much. He is often cast as a naive optimist, and his warmth gives that familiar figure a little vulnerability. We rate him most when the character's feelings matter, rather than when awkwardness is expected to be funny by itself.

Josh Greenbaum's Strays (2023) gives him a neatly defined job as Gus, a dog who narrates his own life in the voice of sentimental trailers. The joke uses his facility with warmth without asking us to take the sentiment seriously. It is a small contribution to a film in which Foxx, voicing Bug, does most of the comic work. Gad fits the sweetness underneath the foul language, but the film has too few jokes and repeats them until they stop being funny.

We would like directors to give him more of those specific comic tasks, and fewer opportunities merely to look keen. A voice this comfortable with sentimentality is worth using for more than reassurance, as the Gus cameo suggests. Start with Frozen for the warmth; Pixels is a poor place to look for evidence of how funny he can be.